Joe sighted the arrow and let fly, taking out the figure to the left of the family’s tent. Even as the arrow flew, he seemed to sense a rightness to the shot. He knew, without doubt or uncertainty, the arrow would strike true. He didn’t let the feeling distract and reached behind to pull out another five arrows before striking them into the turf in front of him. He pulled one back up to his bow, pulled, and released. Again, the sense of a perfect strike thundered through his mind and he grinned. Huh… maybe I got this!
No cry had risen yet from the attackers, yet, so Joe didn’t yell out a cry to the members. The family was safe now anyway, the two attackers closest to them were dead. It was Garnedell he was a bit worried about now, but the men seemed to have frozen, maybe sensing something. He quickly pulled his arrow and let fly another shot at the man directly behind Garnedell’s sleeping form. This time, he didn’t feel the ‘perfect shot’ but moved on to the next one. Even if I didn’t hit him right on, it should still hit him!
He pulled up his next arrow and sighted and released on the last form closest to Garnedell. Even as the arrow slid from the bow, he once again felt the ‘perfect shot’ and smiled. He pulled up his next to last arrow and turned to the man who’d been coming from the bridge, but then a cry came from the camp and Joe saw that the third man he’d shot had taken the arrow to his upper right chest. He wasn’t sure, but not too concerned as it seemed the man was incapable of anything else and the cries quickly woke everyone and startled the bridge guy. The bridge guy quickly froze and looked around before suddenly turning to run directly at Joe.
“Garnedell! Wake up,” Joe shouted as he realized surprise was now lost!
As the man from the bridge pounded towards him, Joe took careful aim but was astounded by the man’s quick responses. How did he see me! Seriously? I’m a shadow standing in a shadow of the tree! It’s… Joe settled himself and let the arrow fly. The man seemed to respond with a bit of a shocked cry and barely brought up his shield. The arrow glanced off the shield at an angle and snapped downward into the dirt. How did he…
“Well, that sucks!”
He’s too close! Joe didn’t want to take the chance of the man blocking his next shot since it would leave him in melee range with a bow in his hands instead of a good melee weapon. Joe flipped his bow back onto his back and pulled out his spear and shield. He wasn’t able to tighten the shield down very well, but it would help a little, at least. Joe stepped forward and squared off before the swordsman. Even as he did so, he heard the groaning cries from back at the camp suddenly cut off and the thumping sound of running feet. At least two people… Garnedell and the father?
Joe circled the man to the right, forcing him to put his back to the camp and the incoming help. The man immediately recognized Joe’s gambit and moved with him, trying to move faster and place Joe with his compatriots. Joe didn’t let the man finish his move and increased his slide to the right, incorporating some quick slides and jumps to keep himself flanking the man when Garnedell showed up. The man obviously became frustrated and tried to control his position once again but found the situation growing ever more difficult. The swordsman glanced to his left and saw the two running towards him and cursed angrily. Well… maybe it’s a curse? At least his angry. Must be worried.
The man seemed to consider for a few moments before Joe decided to tie him down and stepped forward to thrust with his spear. The man leapt backwards hard, feinted a sweep with his sword, and came in from Joe’s left. Joe immediately stepped back and dropped his shield down for protection, planting himself firmly to take the strike. The sword hit with the force of a hammer and a flash of light. Wha…! Joe shook his head and blinked, panic and fear fueled by the uncertainty his blindness flooded him with. Joe quickly leapt back to protect himself as he desperately squinted through his blinded eyes. After a blink or two, he was surprised to see the man was sprinting away as fast as he could back towards the bridge. Joe was a bit taken aback by the man’s reaction but quickly stepped forward and heaved his spear. Again, the feeling of a perfect throw seemed to flow through him and he turned his sprint to a jog. The man’s dead anyway. Even as he predicted, his spear shunked into the back of the man, a hard hollow sound of the strike echoing through the clearing. He came upon the man and put one leg on the sword hand before kicking the blade away, then kneeled and put his weight on the man’s back. A quick twist of the man’s neck made sure he was dead and Joe pulled out his spear while standing. He turned back to Garnedell and the father, coming towards them quickly before coming to a stop before them.
“Boy. Girl. OK?”
Garnedell nodded, a smile of pride on his face, “All OK!”
Joe smiled and ruffled his head before turning away, “Good! I was a bit worried.”
Joe went to where his arrow had slid off the swordsman’s shield and found the arrow buried into the loose dirt in the field. He pulled it out and took it with him, worried a bit about its state. I really hope it’s not bent! He ran back to the tree, and as he got close to it, he heard Garnedell and the father yelling and screaming at him. He turned at looked at them, a questioning look on his face.
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“What’s wrong?”
The father shouted back in an unending stream of shouts, but Garnedell tried to be succinct, “Zhoe! Tree! Tree!”
Joe whipped back around to stare at the tree, his jog slowed to a careful sliding step as he brought up his spear and shield. He looked around the tree and searched carefully but could find no one around the trunk nor any sign someone was in the branches. He continued to move forward, increasing his caution as he heard Garnedell’s and the father’s shouts increase in panic. He reached his last arrow he’d left in the ground but left it where it was as he cautiously circled the tree. His eyes scanned the branches and he made a full circle of the trunk but found nothing. Returning shield and spear to their resting places, Joe pulled out his arrow before turning to the two shouting at him, although their shouts had now calmed and stopped. Must have seen some shadows or something!
“Don’t worry! I checked… no one else there, alright?”
The father seemed to look at him with stunned shock while Garnedell’s face shone with a pride before he began nodding. Hey kid, we got lucky! Don’t think too much about me! He ruffled the kid’s head again as he walked by before turning back to camp. He held his good arrow in his left while the arrow that had struck the shield was in his right. Returning to the camp, he dropped the arrows down on the ground next to his sleeping bag before retrieving the arrows from the four men he’d hit. Retrieving those four arrows, he placed them in a pile between the other two arrows before returning to the corpses. He pulled them all to the side and dumped them all in a pile. He went back to the swordsman last and piled him up with the rest before returning to the camp.
The mother and children had long since come out, and Garnedell and the father were busy stoking the campfire back into flames. The children seemed to huddle around the mother a bit, but the woman seemed to be standing strong and vigilantly looked around the camp. Even the children, despite crowding close to the mom, surveyed their surroundings with vigilance and only a hint of the anxiety Joe was expecting to find. I’m even worried. What kind of family is this? Is this normal for them? Joe didn’t wish to deal with the corpses tonight and sat down next to the campfire, but Garnedell and the father spoke for a few moments and after the fire had been stoked full and well fed, the two stood and jogged towards the pile of bodies and began to work them over.
Joe’s adrenaline rush had finished washing over him, but his sense of duty drove him to his feet and headed out to the pile. Guess we need to bury them tonight or the anim… What are they doing? Joe stopped, nonplussed, then unsettled. The two were going through the men’s belongings before stripping them of anything of value. They piled it to the side before heaving the almost nude corpses to the side. Joe swallowed a bit of reflux, calming himself before joining in. The enormity of what he’d done was slamming down on his heart and he found it difficult to settle his agitated emotions or the rumbling discomfort of his stomach, but the calm efficient work the other two displayed allowed Joe to calm himself as well, and he buried his thoughts behind the need to complete the task. They soon had the five corpses denuded and Joe quickly hid his upset, burying his rebelling modern sensibilities against his violent actions behind a detached scientific curiosity of the corpses.
None of them were human. Three had distinct animalistic qualities of some sort, either in the form of claws, strange feet, or unusual nonhuman ears or tails. Almost all of them had tails. Two were mammalian and one was reptilian. The other two corpses were definitely not human but he found them instantly recognizable. Why do I see an elf and a dwarf? Why are there elves and dwarves on this planet? Where would… Joe’s mind shut down at this point, his curiosity no longer strong enough to resist the enormity of killing five people. They’re not human!
Joe desperately tried to bring himself back from … Desperate gasps, retching, a sense of panic and overwhelming uncertainty. Joe looked up and blinked. Garnedell and the father were taking the corpses into the tree line. More work to do! No time to slack now! Joe grabbed the legs of one of the corpses and dragged it into the tree line. He followed them into the forest and dumped the corpse where the other two had done so. They continued until all the corpses were now piled under the forest a good twenty or thirty meters back from the tree line.
Once the work was done, Joe felt the panic and fear return. He struggled to maintain his calm, but soon found himself back, remembering the calm feel of the arrow flying, the certainty of the kill, and his satisfaction of a perfect shot. This satisfaction in that moment warred with his overwhelming horror at what that moment had been; the death of another sapient being! Joe wandered through the field and found himself overwhelmed, unable to consider or escape from the crushing assault on his modern sensibilities. Probably the only thing keeping him grounded was the fact that all he could see were shadows when he’d attacked. It was only in the moment that he pulled the spear and arrows from the attackers that Joe actually saw the brutality of his attacks. And in that, the horror found fertile ground to terrorize Joe’s mind, replaying the moment.
As he restlessly wandered the field, Joe heard Garnedell cry out to him, but was simply too overwhelmed to understand him and waved him away. Joe continued circling the field before his eyes finally settled on the lone tree in the middle of the clearing. He turned towards it and found himself seated under its boughs, finding a sense of peace he was frantic to find even as he leaned back against the tree trunk. As his head thunked back into the tree trunk, he began his nonsensical conversation with the tree once more, although the topic seemed to quickly shift to a therapeutic session regarding his murder of the… no… not murder. Those men were going to kill me, Garnedell, and that whole family. It was definitely not murder! Joe soon found himself calming, his mind working through the issue easily even as his heart still struggled to come to some kind of peace. The conversation lasted long into the night and Joe finally found himself able to sleep.
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